A variety of non-surgical interventional procedures have been developed over the years for opening stenosed or occluded blood vessels in a patient caused by the build up of plaque or other substances in the walls of the blood vessel. Such procedures usually involve the percutaneous introduction of an interventional device into the lumen of the artery. In one procedure the stenosis can be treated by placing an expandable interventional device such as an expandable stent into the stenosed region to expand and hold open the segment of blood vessel or other arterial lumen. Metal or metal alloy stents have been found useful in the treatment or repair of blood vessels after a stenosis has been compressed by percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) or removal by other means. Metal stents are typically delivered in a compressed condition to the target site, then deployed at the target into an expanded condition or deployed state to support the vessel.
The following terminology is used. When reference is made to a “stent”, this term will refer to a permanent structure, usually comprised of a metal or metal alloy, generally speaking, while a scaffold will refer to a structure comprising a bioresorbable polymer and capable of radially supporting a vessel for a limited period of time, e.g., 3, 6 or 12 months following implantation. It is understood, however, that the art sometimes uses the term “stent” when referring to either type of structure.
Scaffolds and stents traditionally fall into two general categories—balloon expanded and self-expanding. The later type expands to a deployed or expanded state within a vessel when a radial restraint is removed, while the former relies on an externally-applied force to configure it from a crimped or stowed state to the deployed or expanded state.
Self-expanding stents formed from, for example, shape memory metals or super-elastic alloys such as nickel-titanum (NiTi) which are designed to automatically expand from a compressed state when the radial restraint is withdrawn or removed at the distal end of a delivery catheter into the body lumen, i.e. when the radial restraint is withdrawn or removed. Typically, these stents are delivered within a radially restraining polymer sheath. The sheath maintains the low profile needed to navigate the stent towards the target site. Once at the target site, the sheath is then removed or withdrawn in a controlled manner to facilitate deployment or placement at the desired site. Examples of self-expanding stents constrained within a sheath when delivered to a target site within a body are found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,254,609, US 20030004561 and US 20020052640.
Balloon expanded stents, as the name implies, are expanded upon application of an external force through inflation of a balloon, upon which the stent is crimped. The expanding balloon applies a radial outward force on the luminal surfaces of the stent. During the expansion from a crimped or stowed, to deployed or expanded state the stent undergoes a plastic or irreversible deformation in the sense that the stent will essentially maintain its deformed, deployed state after balloon pressure is withdrawn.
Balloon expanded stents may also be stored within a sheath, either during a transluminal delivery to a target site or during the assembly or in the packaging of the stent-balloon catheter delivery system. The balloon expanded stent may be contained within a sheath when delivered to a target site to minimize dislodgment of the stent from the balloon while en route to the target vessel. Sheaths may also be used to protect a drug eluting stent during a crimping process, which presses or crimps the stent to the balloon catheter. When an iris-type crimping mechanism, for example, is used to crimp a stent to balloon, the blades of the crimper, often hardened metal, can form gouges in a drug-polymer coating or even strip off coating through interaction similar to forces at play when the blades and/or stent struts are misaligned during the diameter reduction. Examples of stents that utilize a sheath to protect the stent during a crimping process are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,783,542 and 6,805,703.
A polymer scaffold, such as that described in US 20100004735 may be made from a biodegradable, bioabsorbable, bioresorbable, or bioerodable polymer. The terms biodegradable, bioabsorbable, bioresorbable, biosoluble or bioerodable refer to the property of a material or stent to degrade, absorb, resorb, or erode away after the scaffold has been implanted at the target vessel. The polymer scaffold described in US 2010/0004735, as opposed to a metal stent, is intended to remain in the body for only a limited period of time. In many treatment applications, the presence of a stent in a body may be necessary for a limited period of time until its intended function of, for example, maintaining vascular patency and/or drug delivery is accomplished. Moreover, it is believed that biodegradable scaffolds, as opposed to a metal stent, allow for improved healing of the anatomical lumen and reduced incidence of late stent thrombosis. For these reasons, there is a desire to treat a vessel using a polymer scaffold, in particular a bioresorbable polymer scaffold, as opposed to a metal stent, so that the prosthesis's presence in the vessel is for a limited duration. However, there are numerous challenges to overcome when developing a delivery system having a polymer scaffold.
Polymeric materials considered for use as a polymeric scaffold, e.g. poly(L-lactide) (“PLLA”), poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide) (“PLGA”), poly(D-lactide-co-glycolide) or poly(L-lactide-co-D-lactide) (“PLLA-co-PDLA”) with less than 10% D-lactide, and PLLD/PDLA stereo complex, may be described, through comparison with a metallic material used to form a stent, in some of the following ways. Suitable polymers have a low strength to volume ratio, which means more material is needed to provide an equivalent mechanical property to that of a metal. Therefore, struts must be made thicker and wider to have the required strength for a stent to support lumen walls at a desired radius. The scaffold made from such polymers also tends to be brittle or have limited fracture toughness. The anisotropic and rate-dependant inelastic properties (i.e., strength/stiffness of the material varies depending upon the rate at which the material is deformed) inherent in the material only compound this complexity in working with a polymer, particularly a bioresorbable polymer such as PLLA or PLGA. Challenges faced when securing a polymer scaffold to a delivery balloon are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/861,719.
When using a polymer scaffold, several of the accepted processes for metal stent handling can no longer be used. A metal stent may be crimped to a balloon in such a manner as to minimize, if not eliminate recoil in the metal structure after removal from the crimp head. Metal materials used for stents are generally capable of being worked more during the crimping process than polymer materials. This desirable property of the metal can mean less concern over the metal stent—balloon engagement changing over time when the stent-catheter is packaged and awaiting use in a medical procedure. Due to the material's ability to be worked during the crimping process, e.g., successively crimped and released at high temperatures within the crimp mechanism, any propensity for elastic recoil in the material following crimping can be significantly reduced, if not eliminated, without affecting the stent's radial strength when later expanded by the balloon. As such, following a crimping process the stent-catheter assembly often does not need packaging or treatment to maintain the desired stent-balloon engagement and delivery profile. If the stent were to recoil to a larger diameter, meaning elastically expand to a larger diameter after the crimping forces are withdrawn, then significant dislodgment force could be lost and the stent-balloon profile not maintained at the desired diameter needed to deliver the stent to the target site. Consequently, sheaths for metallic stents are often solely protective, preventing contamination or mechanical damage to the stent and coating. They do not need to be closely fitted to prevent stent recoil on aging and storage.
While a polymer scaffold may be formed so that it is capable of being crimped in such a manner as to reduce inherent elastic recoil tendencies in the material when crimped, e.g., by maintaining crimping blades on the scaffold surface for an appreciable dwell period, the effectiveness of these methods are limited. Significantly, the material generally is incapable of being worked to the degree that a metal stent may be worked without introducing deployed strength problems, such as excessive cracking in the material. Recoil of the crimped structure, therefore, is a problem that needs to be addressed.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need to address the challenges associated with securing a polymer scaffold to a delivery balloon and maintaining the integrity of a scaffold-balloon catheter delivery system up until the time when the scaffold and balloon are delivered to a target site within a body. Related to these objectives, there is a need to improve the design and handling of a sheath assembly that is removable (prior to implantation) without causing damage or dislodgment of the crimped scaffold underneath. There is also a need to improve upon sheaths for, or removal of sheaths from stents.